What a hard message to preach yesterday, yet one I think needs to be preached more in the church today. Hard because I know I’m not perfect. Hard because I know I have failed to live up to some of those standards at times. Yet, all those godly qualifications are necessary for the health of the local church. Truth is, Godly character is not a result our own self-efforts. No, godly character can only be produced in a person’s life when they are filled with the Word of God and being led by the Spirit of God. And churches that call unqualified men to lead, (men who do not exhibit these evidences) do so at great harm to themselves and others. Perhaps even worse are those churches who allow men who have disqualified themselves to remain in the pulpit. As I said yesterday, it’s not a matter of fairness, it’s a matter of rightness. Truth be told, we all serve at the pleasure of our King, and He alone gets to decide who serves where in His church
This next Sunday we’re going to see why Paul thought it so important for Titus to appoint qualified men to serve as these leaders. That whole “holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it” (Titus 1:5-9) is going to get tested! False prophets and false teachers were starting to cause quite a problem within those Cretan churches, and these false teachers were going to have to be dealt with. Confrontation is not something the majority of us like to engage in, but as we will see, there are some things worth fighting for and some hills worth dying on. I invite you to remember me in your prayers as I seek to serve faithfully as an “under-shepherd” of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I would appreciate any feedback from yesterday’s (9/11/22) message you might want to offer. Whether you agreed with my conclusions or not, I am always open to correction or discussion.
In Service of the King,
Pastor Jason
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